LONG-TERMERS

Deputy editor Adam Towler introduces his modern-day classics, and explains why they’re his perfect duo

A pair of Pugs join the fleet – a 208 GTI by PS and a 205 GTI 1.9 – plus a Porsche 996, while other cars have been on a trackday

ONE OF THE MANY GREAT THINGS about working at evo is that you’re surrounded by genuine car enthusiasts, and this is never more obvious than when you look at the older, journalistowned cars that appear in Fast Fleet from time to time. From Dickie Meaden’s Porsche 964 RS – remember that? – to Antony Ingram’s Mk1 Mazda MX-5 and Peugeot 106 Rallye, and many more besides, it’s an eclectic mix of cars that says plenty about those who own them.

So it is with more than a little pride that my own fleet makes its evo debut this month. As way of an introduction, I’ll try to explain the reasons behind owning these two cars in particular. After all, there’s an almost limitless list of cars I’d like to own – I’m sure you’re the same. Dreaming, plotting and fantasising about owning the models on my giant, constantly evolving list is regretfully one of my favourite past-times, a sanctuary tucked away in the brain’s inner corridors, reliable for its pleasant distraction whether enjoyed verbally down the pub or inwardly when stuck in a lengthy airport check-in queue.

Some cars rise to the top of that list for mere hours – objects of desire that burn brightly then fizzle away almost immediately; some last for days, some weeks; some ignite single-minded quests for as much information on them as possible; some lead to concrete plans starting to form. Almost all wreck on the unyielding rocks of not enough time or money. However, from that list there are two cars

‘ There’s an almost limitless list of cars I’d like to own, but at the core of my fleet, if at all possible, will always be some form of 911 and a 205 GTI’

that are always present – always have been. So while I’m now lucky enough to own both of them, and while the list still taunts and tempts me most hours of the day, the core of the fleet, if at all possible, will always be some form of Porsche 911 and a Peugeot 205 GTI.

Let’s start with the 911. I’ve wanted one since I was about five years old. Like millions of people, I’ve long had a strange affinity with the rear-engined sports coupe from Stuttgart, which in its more focused forms often encapsulates my own beliefs on what makes cars and driving great. When I was a kid I wanted a 3.2 Carrera, or a 930 – the original Turbo – but in later years my obsession grew to include the delicate early cars with their chrome decoration, up to the primary-coloured motorsport 964s and 993s of the 1990s. Note one central theme here: they’re all air-cooled. Yet the car you see here is water-cooled.

This is because I didn’t see the classic car boom coming. I assumed, like so many had before me, that I’d start my 911-ownership years with a ratty SC, then move on to the object of my early-911 desires – a ‘safety colour’ 2.2 S, costing around £20,000 – in due course. I didn’t realise that I’d need to add another nought to the end of that figure within a few years. So rather than park the dream in disgust as prices of air-cooled cars got out of reach, I looked to the early water-cooled era – the first 911 I’d driven professionally, a car I had loved, and one that I’d not so much fallen out of love with but had simply slightly forgotten about through over familiarisation. Now, of course, everyone is talking up the 996 market – cars many of the same people wouldn’t have given pocket change for a few years earlier. I don’t care either way: I think the 996 is a masterpiece and I adore mine – a 2002 3.6 – for reasons I will be expanding on in later reports.

So, what of the little red French car? Little, yes, but overflowing with vibrancy, charisma, spirit; sometimes truculent, often fiery – both metaphorically and, tragically, literally, all too commonly back in the day. I bought mine a few years ago when prices had started to move but had yet to get as ridiculous as they are today.

Small sporting Peugeots are the bedrock of my enthusiasm for cars and I’d own one of every type, every niche variant, if I had the money and space. Why? A combination of the 1:43 scale 205 T16 model car (who says motorsport doesn’t work?) being pushed around the carpet, a friend’s parents buying a new 205 XS, and most of all the aura of the GTI. I can still remember my parents muttering about how 1905cc was too big an engine for such a small car. Well, that was it. A red rag and all of that. In an instant it appeared massively fast, desirable, dangerous. Perfect. Nostalgia, of course, also plays its part. It’s a simple car from a simpler time; the time of my youth, and a bit later on, those formative days when I’d drive the wheels off my ailing 205 1.6 GTI and rue the ‘impossible’ insurance on a 1.9.

My 205 isn’t in perfect condition – neither is the 911, to be fair – but what’s going on with it, and how it might be made better is, I suppose, partly what subsequent reports are all going to be about. More soon.